This week, current and former members of my sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, took their lawsuit against the organization to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing Kappa’s decision to admit a male into the University of Wyoming’s chapter violated their rights and the sorority’s own bylaws.
The male in question is Artemis Langford, a 6-foot-2-inch, 260-pound transgender student who allegedly ogled at girls in the Kappa house, asked inappropriate questions about their sex, and told the girls he was still sexually interested in women. But even without Langford’s questionable conduct, his presence in the sorority was (and still is) unacceptable for one simple reason: He is not a woman.
Kappa Kappa Gamma’s own bylaws clearly state that a “new member shall be a woman.” This is not a complicated requirement. And yet leftist gender ideology has so thoroughly rotted the organization that Kappa leadership is trying to claim it doesn’t know how to define what a “woman” is.
Kappa’s attorney, Natalie McLaughlin, told the 10th Circuit on Wednesday that “[the word] ‘women’ is unquestionably not defined … and unquestionably has multiple meanings.” She went on to claim that Ohio, where Kappa Kappa Gamma’s national organization is based, gives the sorority wide leeway to define the terms of its bylaws, including the word “woman.” She did not, however, expand on what exactly Kappa’s definition is.
Even the judges, all three of whom were appointed by Democrats, seemed to find this argument absurd. Judge Carolyn McHugh asked McLaughlin whether Kappa’s vague and as-of-yet undefined interpretation of the word “woman” might include “cisgender men.” McLaughlin again refused to answer one way or the other, bizarrely claiming she didn’t have the proper research to be able to say whether “cisgender men” could be legally considered “women” and again asserting Kappa’s right to interpret the word however it sees fit.
This is a whole lot of legal and logical mumbo-jumbo, all to excuse Kappa Kappa Gamma from fulfilling the very purpose for which it was created: to serve as a sex-exclusive space for young women.
It is simply astounding that Kappa leadership would rather twist itself into knots catering to an ideological fringe than stick up for the sex that has made this organization what it is. Women founded Kappa. Women turned it into a national organization. Women have organized and managed its individual chapters for more than a century.
And if Kappa leadership looks at this female-centered, female-driven history and still can’t pin down what a “woman” is, then to my fellow Kappa sisters, I’d say: They don’t deserve us anyway.